Thoughts on Holy Saturday
Most of us Church members are nominally Christians. We often worship something else. To be a Christian is to worship Jesus the person, to adhere to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Instead we believe in other things. When we say we believe in something we are saying, “I give my heart to...” The general run of the population of America gives its heart to wealth, beauty, popularity, power, accumulation of goods, security and happiness. Most people are thus functional polytheists.
Church members too are functional polytheists, but our gods, often in addition to the ones mentioned above, include a special set of deities to whom we give our hearts.
They are an Intellectual God, the God of Goodness and the God of Religion.
For many church members belief is not about the heart but about the mind, the understanding. To be a faithful God follower is to be convinced by arguments both rational and irrational that something is true. The history of Christian theology is replete with arguments for the existence of God. Much of Christian theology since 1700 has been about proving that events in the Bible actually happened. Both conservatives and liberals are prone to worship their own convictions. Conservatives argue for literal interpretations of scripture and strict adherence to a defined set of moral standards. Liberals worship reason and reject anything they cannot figure out.
The most common god we church members worship is Goodness. Being a Christians we say is about doing good things rather than bad things and being nice to everyone. This idea takes the form of soup kitchens, clothing give aways, shelters and sometimes lobbying for good causes. In its most frequent form the worship of goodness is about being congenial. Being pleasant to everyone all the time. “We are a friendly church,” most congregations say when looking for a new pastor. Of course, it is not possible to be nice and good all the time. So on those many occasions when someone in the church offends us, especially if it is the priest, we face a dilemma. Since we have to be nice we cannot tell the person whose behavior we don’t like to his face. We talk to other people about it; we engage in passive-aggressive action. Or we just leave the church without explanation.
Our desire to tell the truth, to act out our unhappiness, is pushed into a corner until it explodes in aggressive behavior. Clergy see this all the time. We also are guilty of it.
Church members also worship religion. We venerate our buildings, prayer books, hymns, liturgies, our moments of religious ecstasy and sometimes even the clergy.
We clergy are especially prone to give our hearts to the church in one of its many forms.
Most of us church members worship, give our hearts, to one or more of these divinities. All of these ideals are quite good. It is good to think carefully about scripture and morals. It is good to care for the needy and be kind to other people. It is good to be involved in causes which will make our lives better. It is good to preserve the outward forms of of our faith. Prayer, Justice and Mercy, says the prophet, are the outward signs of our inward faith. But they are not the objects Christian should be worshipping.
It is good to know where we mistakenly leave our hearts for it might just call us back to Jesus.
Instead we believe in other things. When we say we believe in something we are saying, “I give my heart to...” The general run of the population of America gives its heart to wealth, beauty, popularity, power, accumulation of goods, security and happiness. Most people are thus functional polytheists.
Church members too are functional polytheists, but our gods, often in addition to the ones mentioned above, include a special set of deities to whom we give our hearts.
They are an Intellectual God, the God of Goodness and the God of Religion.
For many church members belief is not about the heart but about the mind, the understanding. To be a faithful God follower is to be convinced by arguments both rational and irrational that something is true. The history of Christian theology is replete with arguments for the existence of God. Much of Christian theology since 1700 has been about proving that events in the Bible actually happened. Both conservatives and liberals are prone to worship their own convictions. Conservatives argue for literal interpretations of scripture and strict adherence to a defined set of moral standards. Liberals worship reason and reject anything they cannot figure out.
The most common god we church members worship is Goodness. Being a Christians we say is about doing good things rather than bad things and being nice to everyone. This idea takes the form of soup kitchens, clothing give aways, shelters and sometimes lobbying for good causes. In its most frequent form the worship of goodness is about being congenial. Being pleasant to everyone all the time. “We are a friendly church,” most congregations say when looking for a new pastor. Of course, it is not possible to be nice and good all the time. So on those many occasions when someone in the church offends us, especially if it is the priest, we face a dilemma. Since we have to be nice we cannot tell the person whose behavior we don’t like to his face. We talk to other people about it; we engage in passive-aggressive action. Or we just leave the church without explanation.
Our desire to tell the truth, to act out our unhappiness, is pushed into a corner until it explodes in aggressive behavior. Clergy see this all the time. We also are guilty of it.
Church members also worship religion. We venerate our buildings, prayer books, hymns, liturgies, our moments of religious ecstasy and sometimes even the clergy.
We clergy are especially prone to give our hearts to the church in one of its many forms.
Most of us church members worship, give our hearts, to one or more of these divinities. All of these ideals are quite good. It is good to think carefully about scripture and morals. It is good to care for the needy and be kind to other people. It is good to be involved in causes which will make our lives better. It is good to preserve the outward forms of of our faith. Prayer, Justice and Mercy, says the prophet, are the outward signs of our inward faith. But they are not the objects Christian should be worshipping.
It is good to know where we mistakenly leave our hearts for it might just call us back to Jesus.
posted by Thomas Van Brunt | 10:57 AM
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